Autumn in Blackheath

LEAF PEEPING IN AUTUMN

Portraits of my garden.

I love my little village of Blackheath. I do joke and call it Bleakheath, but only with affection. It’s in the upper Blue Mountains of New South Wales, so the seasons are well defined. Spring is gorgeous and snow can occasionally transform it in winter. But it’s in autumn that it shows its full glory. Tourists snap away along Wentworth Street, and so do I.

Early colour in Wentworth Street looking north.

The old church hall in Wentworth Street.

Tourists risk life and limb as they tried to capture the best images. There are not many places where you can risk sitting down in the middle of the street.

Tourists in Wentworth Street

The photograph below is at the southern end of the same street, close to the village centre.

One tree seems to have every colour in an artist’s palette. Yes, that’s me underneath it. For a writer, Blackheath is an inspirational paradise, except that I spend too much time out and about with my camera!

I managed to persuade my partner Rob to pose (well stand) below some American pin oaks.

The oaks also make a great show at the intersection of Wentworth Street and Gardiner’s Crescent, and ‘storybook’ red and white toadstools pop up across the road. There are also plenty of edible orange ‘pine’ mushrooms around.

Kooka in the oak.

Oak Alley

A local gnome is dwarfed by this one.

Mushrooms are an autumn treat at Govett’s Café in Blackheath village.

Up by the station there is more beautiful colour from maples and pin oaks along the Great Western Highway.

Golden colour outside the medical clinic cheers us up when we go for our flu shots.

MY OWN LITTLE CORNER AT ‘THE GUMS’

The birds in our garden love autumn too; plenty of nuts and seeds to feed on.

Acrobatic King Parrot.

The Crimson Rosella loves the seeds of the tulip tree.

A delicious breakfast

Japanese maple trees are a favourite.

Sulphur crested cockatoo showing off his crest.

The photo below is the cockatoo feeding in the variegated tulip tree.

Down by the letter box.

Maples in front of the deck.

Pure gold.

As the leaves fall and the weather gets colder it’s lovely to have a cheery wood fire.

11 Comments

Pauline, i thoroughly enjoyed your article about Blackheath, a town i have stayed in a few times and it has never ceased to disappoint. I shall certainly be wanting to stay during the autumn next time. I shall recommend an autumn holiday for my fellow book club friends next year maybe. I think we would really love it there.

Pauline, thank you for your wonderful Autumn photos of Blackheath which was my ‘home-town’ from 1950 until I departed for the big-smoke in 1965 to find work. My Mum lived in Arcadia Street from 1948 until 1993 bringing up 3 children on her own and being involved with many Charities, Schools and C of E committees always baking cakes for stalls and functions and doing part-time work in the Village shops. Mum was also on the organizing committee of the 1885-1985 Blackheath Village and School Centenary celebrations which were fantastic.

I have a few ‘huge’ Calendars for 1985 which are very interesting indeed.

I still visit Blackheath as much as I can as I have fond (and un-fond) memories and also visit one of my Blackheath Kindergarten lifelong friends who still lives there.

I enjoyed reading your ‘Collins’ story and wonder if Linda Collins is related (she is a longtime Blackheath lady who runs a shop there) ??

Thanks Lorraine. I write a lot about Blackheath. We have been here 16 years, having moved up from Sydney to enjoy the birdlife and the seasonal changes. Are you sure the lady you are thinking of isn’t Linda Collier, who runs the crystal shop in the arcade?